The utility industry is finding it more difficult to meet the increased demand for electric power and at the same time to obtain right-of-ways on which to build new transmission lines. Hence electric utility companies are compelled to seek methods of transmitting more energy over existing rights-of-way. One means of accomplishing this objective is by replacing existing conductors with larger conductors, but this imposes larger mechanical loads upon the towers than their original design accommodates. If, as a result, the tower should fail, the failure would damage or destroy a number of towers which, in turn, would cause long delays in getting the line back in service. In order to avoid replacing towers to handle the larger loads imposed, various load limiters have been used to limit the horizontal component of force to which the tower is subjected and which allow the line to drop to the ground when the pre-selected force is exceeded, thereby avoiding damage to the tower.
Therefore, various types of mechanical load limiters have been used. However, some of the prior art load limiters have not functioned satisfactorily in that they sometimes release before the safe load is exceeded and sometimes do not release until damage to the tower has occurred. In previous load limiting devices, once the load limiter is released, the entire device needs to be replaced. Often, the replacement of the load limiter is a costly and time consuming ordeal. Accordingly, the need exists for a load limiting mechanism that overcomes these shortcomings.